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Month / August 2003

I don’t have a lot of time to write, but I wanted to say that I’m happy and safe and having a great time. I did want to do something kinda fun though – I’d like anybody who’s interested to ask me questions and I shall return them the second I get a chance. So, leave me comments about ANYTHING you want to know!!!!!

And I have a lot to write about, but I think I’m going to head to bed.

Nancy – Sorry to hear you’re leaving, but I know God will bless you through your endeavors… don’t ever hesitate to give me a ring if you ever, ever need anything. Thank you for all you’ve taught me and for all the good times :).

Hey all – I’m sitting in Maine right now checking my mail at an Internet Cafe they have up here. It’s a lot of fun, because you see people all over just cruising around, checking up on stuff. Also, it’s sad because I don’t think any of us can tolerate being away from the real world for more than a day or two. But, with school looming, I figure I need to be concerned.

Right now I’m on I-90 in New York… thanks to a Cell Phone, free weekend minutes, my laptop, and a cable connecting the two, I’m cruising and online. Kinda cool.

Anyway, 3×5 is a good song of this vacation because I’m heading up to Bar Harbor again. I’m determined to head up to Cadillac Mountain to see the sunrise (the first place in the US of A)… listen to the song and you’ll understand.

Hope y’all are having good days, catch you when I get back and am back to school. Word.

I just wanted to let you know how revitalized I’m feeling after yet another successful night’s rest. Didn’t quite grab eight hours if you deduct my trip to the bathroom and my having to reposition the cat that one time, but in each case you’ll be pleased to hear that I was able to resume my sleep almost immediately. (My dreams spliced together seamlessly, I might add.) There’s nothing extraordinary about what I did, of course – any normal person could pull it off – but boy, did it feel good!

Now, I want to help you, if you’d let me. My first recommendation is that you turn the clock toward the wall. This way, you can end the torment of those molten numbers hovering in the darkness as you fail to sleep. It’s absolutely critical, however, that you not stay awake wondering if your mental tally of elapsed hours and minutes matches that of the clock’s display. I bet you could exhaust a whole night doing that.

You also might want to consider visualization. Come up with a mental task intended to draw your attention away from the effort of nodding off, thereby allowing your automatic sleep mechanisms to engage. You can imagine something dull like a sequence of numbers, or project yourself into a more engrossing scenario: “I am the Super Bowl MVP”; “I am Malcolm X”; “I am the Hamburglar.” Of course you’ll need to be wary of the fact that the gnawing, self-conscious awareness of visualizing can get in the way of actually engaging in said visualization.

But maybe you don’t even need my advice. Perhaps you can use the late hours to work on your novel, your quilt, or your Battle of Shiloh diorama – anything to distract you from the fact that recent studies showed that people who went without sleep for nineteen hours scored significantly lower on reflex tests than people with a blood-alcohol level of .08. (That’s the legal standard for intoxication in many states.) And whether you’ve just poured calamine lotion in your cereal or stitched up Mr. Clark after his cesarean section, I implore you not to dwell on the reams of research attesting to how sleep deprivation impairs memory and judgment and is even correlated to a significantly shortened life- span. Likewise, while you’re waiting outside an elementary school for a random kindergarten teacher to pistol-whip, keep in mind that a good night’s sleep, which you’re incapable of, dramatically improves mood. I should stop here. You probably want to jump into a shower that you won’t be able to feel against your insensate zombie flesh and get out into a world of people and objects that will all seem fatally distant and unreal.

wrote a really touching entry today in her entry, and I thought about my experience. I replied to her and part of that is included, but I’ll elaborate further:

When I was a senior in High School, my project was working with abused children and seeing what the effects were in later adulthood. I went to a home and basically lived there off and on for a week. It was amazing to see the results that some of these kids had to deal with. So many of them we’re older than me, yet becuase of their abuse, you couldn’t have guessed it. Some were blinded permanently, some just seemed to not be all there, and one little boy stole and hoarded food because he was literally thrown out of his house and had to live on his own. What really stunned me, however, was the ability for every single one of them to make their lives liveable when someone had compassion and love for them. The woman who fostered all these kids loved them so much and took care of them… it was an amazing time. I think my biggest memory was one of the girls who was my age. She was born premature and while in the incubator, the oxygen was turned up and as a result burned her eyes out, leaving her blind. Her parents consequently abused her; they placed her in a cage and fed her dogfood, kicked her, etc. To keep herself safe in her mind, she talked to a little recorder called Tone. When the lady who fosters her now first started to take care of her, she could only speak with Tone, but as time progressed and her love touched the young girl, she no longer needed Tone. It was so amazing to hear her say that. It was one of the greatest opportuities I’ve ever had, and won’t soon forget it.

Anyway, next to last day. Must do some dirt speck stuff, and write a final report, plus a 1:00 meeting today, and an 11:00 QIT meeting tomorrow before I leave. Yeehaw!

Oh, and I’ve been invited to a wedding by one of the guys in my Housing Group, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s kinda fun to see the whole Grove City marriage progression. First dating, then engagement, then creeking (for those who know nothing about GCC culture, I’ll fill you in some other time), then marriage. It’s a nice deal, and Matt and Liesel make a great couple. I look forward to going.